Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Decisions, Decisions: A Home Building Update

We like to do big life events all at once.

When Chris & I built the house we live in now (which was not a fully custom house) we were getting married. I can't believe that was 7 years ago! Now, we're trying to adopt as well as building a fully custom house. We made it through before and we're trucking right along just fine now so I feel pretty confident that nothing can split us up! Ha! 

I've been asked several times for a house update. It's not that there isn't a ton going on, it's just hard to "show" you what's been happening because we're in the picking stuff out stage.

I do have some tips for those of you who are doing a remodel or building or thinking about doing one of those though, so I thought I'd share those today!

First, I highly recommend starting a Pinterest board for all the dream home ideas that you find. If you want to go through mine, you can find it here. I use this board to find a cohesive style that I like, and  hen to narrow down specific items that I like (their brand, where to buy them etc). I pin things from all over - Houzz.com, blogs, re-pinning from others dream home boards, Lowe's, Home Depot, specialty tile stores, you name it.

Next, take a scouting trip. Go to the granite supplier, the flooring store, meet with you cabinet maker. See what they have to offer and get a feel for what you like. We took our first trip when our house was being framed.

Last week I went back to the flooring and granite places again. This time I narrowed down our granite selections so that I can get them priced out. Our local granite supplier is SO nice - they encourage you to come out and you can spend as much time there as you want. They have this huge lift so if you want to see a huge slab of granite, they bring it out to the center of the shop for you; that way you can see all of the patterns.

A great tip is to get a cabinet sample (this isn't the exact look of our cabinets but its pretty close) and take that with you to match with the granite. You can easily rule out some colors this way! One in particular that I really liked completely clashes with our cabinets, so I'm really glad I did this!

Here are a few of the colors that I looked at:
(Edited: I've received a ton of emails asking about the tile colors! In order, they are:
Fantasy White, Giallo Ornamental, Delicatus, Andino White & White Ice. Also, you can view the finished product in my kitchen here with even more pictures while it was being installed here.)



When I went to the flooring and tile store, I didn't have a granite sample but I did have a piece of another countertop sample that I thought would be fairly close to what I'd end up with. I used those to match up with my backsplash subway tiles. I'm probably going with that lightest blue in the subway shape.


When it came time to pick out carpet for the upstairs along with the upstairs bath tiles, I matched all of those samples together too. Below is the carpet, tile and grout.
And last but not least, this isn't a tip, but it's a picture of 2 of the hardwood colors we're looking at:


Chris sent me a text that they've started drywall and bricking today! I'm so excited! Once things start going in, I'll be able to share some pictures with you all!
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